Traditionally, ceiling fans have been installed by a laborious, time consuming and often cumbersome practice. The conventional ceiling fan includes a ceiling plate which is secured to an electric outlet box by passing the lead wires of the outlet box through a central circular opening in the ceiling plate. Mounting screws are passed through two elongated openings in the ceiling plate to threadably engage with two threaded holes diagonally separated from each other on the periphery of the outlet box. Alternatively, wood screws are passed through the ceiling plate and the outlet box and into a wood stud which supports the outlet box. In either event, the screws are tightened until the ceiling plate is securely mounted on the outlet box. The typical ceiling plate includes a hanging hook.
When a typical ceiling fan assembly is mounted to the ceiling plate, the motor, fan blades and an optional light assembly are secured to a canopy by a down rod or hanger rod. The down rod passes through a central opening in the canopy with a ball mount located at an upper end of the down rod engaged by a periphery of the opening of the canopy, or alternatively a hanger bracket.
The opposite end or lower end of the downrod has external threads so that it may be threaded into an internally threaded receiver mounted to the top end of the motor. Alternatively, the internally threaded receiver may be mounted to a motor housing surrounding the motor or a combination of the motor and motor housing. The receiver and downrod lower end may also include a set of holes through which a set pin may be passed to prevent the unwanted rotation of the downrod relative to the receiver. However, it is oftentimes difficult to rotationally align the downrod holes with the receiver holes in order to pass the set pin through each while still maintaining a tightened position of the downrod within the receiver. Alternatively, the receiver may include a set screw which simply bears upon the downrod to prevent relative rotation.
Accordingly, it is seen that a need has long existed for a ceiling light mounting system that could be more easily and quickly mounted a ceiling fan. It thus is to the provision of such that the present invention is primarily directed.